


Constant Velocity

by interabang



Category: Zero Escape (Video Games), Zero Escape: Zero Time Dilemma - Fandom
Genre: Angst, F/M, Fluff, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-20
Updated: 2017-02-20
Packaged: 2018-09-26 00:17:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,605
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9853355
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/interabang/pseuds/interabang
Summary: After Carlos decides Delta's fate, Sigma and Diana talk about their pasts and future.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [chaoticrandomness](https://archiveofourown.org/users/chaoticrandomness/gifts).



> Chocolate Box Treat for [chaoticrandomness](https://archiveofourown.org/users/chaoticrandomness/pseuds/chaoticrandomness). Hope you like!

They held hands on the long drive back to civilization.

 

Sigma could still see the events of the past few hours as snapshots in his mental imagery: Carlos tossing the gun at Delta’s feet, Junpei shouting a string of swears, and Eric taking a step toward the gun.

 

“Don't,” Diana had said, warningly, from Sigma’s side, and Eric stopped in his tracks.

 

That last bit caused Sigma – who was sitting in the back row of the large van – to squeeze Diana’s hand. Not too tightly, but just enough to let her know he was still there. She turned to look at him, and squeezed his hand in return.

 

“Interesting,” Delta had said, with an unchanging expression. “I apologize, but now I must take my leave.” 

 

In the van, Sigma closed his eyes at the recent memory, running through everything he should have said, should have done. But he had done nothing except watch.

 

“Wait,” Akane said. “There’s so much we have to discuss.”

 

“I work best on my own,” Delta said, then directed the group to a van around the back of the compound. Before he went back into the main entrance of the underground bunker, he added, “However, if the necessity arises, I might contact you in the future.”

 

Before anyone in the group moved forward to stop him, he closed the doors of the entrance, leaving them with no choice but to drive away.

 

“Maybe you should've shot him, after all,” Eric said to Carlos. 

 

Less than an hour after they got on the highway, Mira and Junpei eventually started making jokes about making their first stop to, “go sterilize Sigma,” and he let their remarks wash over him. That is, until Eric joined the conversation, making the grave mistake of looking back at Diana and muttering, “She also got us into this mess.”

 

"Hey, now —” Carlos started to say, but Sigma snapped, “That's enough,” as he fixed the full force of his glare onto Eric. Diana, who had fallen asleep against Sigma’s shoulder, murmured something that sounded like, “Please don’t fight.” Sigma turned to look down at her, the sight of her relaxed expression making his rage recede. Save for Junpei and Akane’s occasional whispers, they all sat in silence for another twenty minutes, until Akane directed Phi on which exit to take.

 

As they pulled up to a nondescript motel, Eric sneered at it. “What, is this the best you can do?” he asked Akane, who had promised to find them all a place to stay for the night.

 

Junpei looked like he wanted to punch Eric – one of the few things Sigma would probably ever agree on with Tenmyouji – but Akane, looking utterly unfazed, said, “We need to lie low for a while. I’d like a four-star hotel too, but extravagance isn’t my top priority.” She turned her attention toward Sigma. “I know Delta’s your son, but I’m sorry, I simply can’t trust him right now.”

 

“Neither can I,” Sigma said.

 

Half an hour later, he stood looking out the window of his sparse motel room, arms crossed over his chest.

 

He watched the traffic jam inch forward, bit by bit, on the highway. He hadn’t even realized, until then, that it had been almost 50 years since he’d seen such a sight. He suspected it would still take time for him to process everything, even making the shift – literally – back to a time when traffic jams and hotel room stationary were the norm. Perhaps that was why he’d been so rash, so reactionary in the bunker.

 

Sigma wasn’t used to this.

 

His thoughts drifted toward Diana, and he knew that he was also unused to happiness. Not averse to it, just… it was a bit like an old friend he hadn’t seen in years, but had just revisited, and was hoping to see more often. But in a way, he was wary of that hope as well. He'd seen that in Akane on the moon, and she did talk once or twice about how isolating it was to remember so much death. To lose everyone while keeping yourself from falling apart.

 

There had been a few bright spots in the dark, for Dr. Klim: Luna showing him new vegetables she'd grown and Kyle making breakthroughs at such a young age, Sigma checking Phi's Cryo pod and placing a hand on the top murmuring, "Somewhere, somewhen, we'll meet again."

 

In the present, someone knocked at the door of his motel room.

 

Sigma opened it, not at all surprised to see Diana standing on the other side, hands clasped in front of her. “Can I come in?” she asked.

 

He opened the door wide, inviting her inside, and after he closed it and they both stood in the center of his room, he wondered what to do. She hadn’t shied away from his touch after they got in the van, but they hadn’t had a chance to discuss what their next step would be – whether it was apart, or together. Sigma knew what he wanted. But was that the same as what Diana would want?

 

Before he could register what was happening, she took his hand, that had been resting at his side, and held it between hers. That _did_ surprise him, but he was pleased that she made the first move, and wasn’t thinking any less of him that he didn’t.

 

“I don’t regret it,” she said.

 

“Me neither,” was his instant reply.

 

She turned over his hand between hers, then took her right hand and ran her small, soft fingers down the main crease of his left one. He watched her, and, as she continued to look down at their hands – him remembering how she would touch his prosthetics on the moon with the same gentleness, her likely remembering how his hands covered hers in the input pod – she said, “Being with you saved my life.”

 

"Really?" He asked, though the memory of another her had said just as much to him before. He had always felt that way about her, but still found it hard to believe she would feel similarly.

 

“Even though we were trapped together...” she slowly lifted his left hand and he let her guide it, bringing it up to her cheek to cup the warmth of her face. “You made those months the happiest of my life.”

 

Sigma drew in a deep breath, catching her scent. She’d probably taken a shower after going into her own room down the hall, but she still smelled faintly like lilacs. On the moon, she would dab her perfume behind her ears, on her neck and her wrists. When Sigma had first buried his face in her neck, or kissed her wrists, she’d said she knew it was a bit old-fashioned, but he knew she was blushing because she was pleased he liked her scent so much, rather than her being embarrassed.

 

When he was playing the AB game, he could have sworn he smelled lilacs, especially in B Garden.

 

“I want to join Crash Keys, Sigma.”

 

“What?” He jerked out of his reverie, his hand frozen on her cheek, holding it up on his own as she cradled his wrist with her own smaller hands.

 

“I want to help as much as I can. I don’t regret us having children, or helping you and Phi, or what happened to me on the moon. But…” she drew in a long, shaking breath before continuing. “All those people. I have to save all the lives on this planet, in this universe, if I can help it.”

 

A tear trickled down the corner of her cheek, and without hesitating, Sigma reached up his pinky a little to wipe her tear away. “It could be dangerous work. I’m joining after I get my diploma, and —”

 

“— Oh, that’s right, you still haven’t gotten it in this timeline. Sorry,” Diana added a little sheepishly, realizing she’d interrupted Sigma.

 

He smiled, wiping away another tear of hers. “It’s fine. I guess what I’m trying to say is...” He moved forward, but then hesitated before wrapping Diana in a hug. He wasn’t sure if she was totally all right with it.

 

She completed the embrace, her arms going around his back, as his hand moved from her cheek to cradle the back of her head. She rested the side of her head against his chest, a sensation that was both familiar and foreign to Sigma.

 

“When I lost you, I was lost for years. No, longer,” he murmured into her hair, stroking it with his other hand. “I could barely pull it together in time to start preparing the AB game. So if anything happens to you in this universe…” He couldn’t even finish the thought.

 

Diana rubbed his back soothingly. “I understand. But I want to help. I want to fight, if I have to. I owe it to all those people who died from Radical-6, and I want to do this for myself, as well.”

 

“I know you do,” he said, sighing. “It’ll be a long road ahead of us. But we’ll deal with whatever lies ahead of us, together.”

 

He took a step backward, pulling away from her slightly, and she raised her head questionably toward him as he looked down at her. “I mean, uh, if you’re okay with us being together like —”

 

She interrupted him again, but this time, she did so by laughing a little, stretching up on her tiptoes, and giving him a long, sweet kiss.

 

Although he was still worried about the future and all its mysteries and challenges, Sigma was really starting to like this timeline.

 


End file.
